Come to think of it, there are practically thousands of businesses online today. Each one of them have some of the best products and services to offer to consumers, and most of them come with appealing deals.

But how does a consumer decide whose customer it wants to be? That’s where building trust on a consumer’s first visit to your store comes in.

How to build a website visitor’s trust?

1. Focus on addressing their concerns

Right from the header of your page to the value proposition you are highlighting, focus on addressing the concern of the consumer. Your headline should speak directly to them about what they are looking for, how you can help and more. This helps in not just letting them know instantly that you have a solution for what they have been looking for, but also engages them instantly.

For example, Unbounce knows how messy it can be for the marketing and content teams to collaborate with developers for creating multiple landing pages. That’s exactly what their headline answers!

2. Don’t ask for bigger commitments

If you think a consumer is going to purchase what you’re offering in their very first purchase, you’re wrong. They are going to take their own sweet time to conduct a research on the options that are available to them – after all, getting to save a few more hundreds hurts no one. Right?

Instead of trying to sell your product directly, ask for smaller commitments like offering a FREE trial. Let them know you don’t need their credit card details to get started with and that they still have the option to leave your product if they are not satisfied.

For example, we offer a FREE trial that doesn’t need a user to share his credit card details with us. He has the choice to choose a plan that suits him the best, only after the free trial is over.

3. Always be the first to offer help

Let’s face it, the amount of information available on the internet, has nudged people into wanting to do everything themselves – which means, even if it is something they are not clued up about, the chances are that they will go through tens of articles till they get it done. But if it still isn’t clear, they are likely to look for a simpler option.

That’s why you should be the first to offer help on your site. Make sure that your visitors don’t think the solutions you offer are not worthy of their time. So before they leave, make sure you’re the first to encourage an interaction and offer help.

In these cases, using an exit intent campaign lets you give the visitor enough time to browse through and understand your product. It then just makes sure that a leaving visitor fully understands what is being offered to him.

For example, a simple offer of a personalized demo can go a long way!

4. A little proof of work

Whether you’re offering a service or selling a product, you need to give the visitor a little proof of the fact that what you’re offering is valuable. After all, no one wants to own something that hasn’t worked before for people like him. Right?

We have been working on conversion optimization for various websites. The one element we think every business should experiment with, is a live chat. It is the one thing that lets a visitor know you’re forever around to offer help to them.

For instance, we use Intercom on our site. It has helped us address even the smallest of questions that our website visitors often come up with while browsing the product. This lets us know where we are not clear about our value proposition and helps us become a lot better!

6. Offer product recommendations

The number one mistake that most business websites make, is not differentiate between new and returning visitors. A lot of consumers choose not to interact on their first visit; but that doesn’t mean you don’t remember the choices they made. Their second visit needs to offer a highly personalized experience.

Based on the campaign interactions they have made previously, retarget your returning website visitors with personalized campaigns. For instance, if a visitor has shown interest in a particular range of tshirts once before, make sure you recommend the fastest or the most popular pieces from that lot.

But do so only on his exit intent. You want to give the visitor enough time to browse through products at his own pace!

7. Make sure no one’s running into 404s

Another thing that often makes the consumers feel doubtful about the business are pages that are running into dead ends or not loading well. Instead of thinking that it could be a technical glitch, they often end up thinking that you were probably trying to sell something to them without offering more details on it.

So no matter what you do, always keep your site up-to-date and optimized. Make sure each of your pages are loading well and your website visitors are getting access to the information they seek – instantly.

8. Wear your trust badges at all times

From customer ratings, reviews to certificates that you have received from the industry, make sure your website is wearing them all. Showing off warranties, guarantees, security certificates and more is just another way of letting the visitor know that they are in safe hands – and that transacting on your site will not leak their personal information.

Sometimes, even putting your face right up on the homepage could be the biggest element that draws the trust of a first time visitor. Take for instance, Tim Ferris’s website!

9. Share your contact details

While a typical consumer isn’t too happy sharing his contact details with you, make sure you’re not doing the same. Add your contact details on the website and make sure they’re visible. Even if the information is added below the fold, adding an address, email id or a phone number that a visitor could reach you on, is a great way to say that you’re ‘consumer-oriented’.

After all, sometimes people just prefer a person to person conversation!

10. Create an active community

According to various studies conducted across different industries, having an active community can go a long way for your business. It won’t just make people interact with each other, but also let them know how great your business is at interacting with people.

We love how Koovs has created a separate section on their website to share all the pictures that their customers click and post on social media. Gives their customers a moment of fame as well!

Conclusion

Creating the right first impression is an important aspect for business growth. If you want a visitor to remember your brand or make an interaction with you, you need to come across as someone who values their needs and has a solution for them – in a trustworthy manner.

Long gone are the days when broadcast promotions worked. So don’t tell us that you’re still thinking of following the same strategy!

Like this post? Share it!

Vanhishikha Bhargava

Content Marketer at Exit Bee. Most of the times found trying to create compelling copies for blogs and digital campaigns, keeping a watch on what's happening on social media or ranting on Twitter. At all other times, not found.

You may also like

Landing pages come with no rule book. While the most basic design with only 100 words might work for a business, it might just bring down the conversions of another. Deciding on a design and creating a converting copy for the same can be a daunting task.

And since it is always to start with something in mind, here are the 6 landing page copywriting tips to keep in mind – rather, the mistakes you must avoid.

We all know how important it is to make the most out of an internet user’s attention as a business. Those few seconds of him discovering your content and visiting your web pages is what defines whether he would turn into a customer of your business or move on to find another alternative, forgetting what you are offering.

This is why on-site retargeting has become as important as running retargeting advertisements on social media. And we’re here with examples of strategies that have worked to boost sales for the business!

The content marketing industry is constantly changing. And so are the trends everyone’s trying to keep up with. Today we’ll talk about power words and how you can use them in your website copy to increase conversions.